The Cincinnati Bengals simply haven’t performed like they have one of the NFL’s most talented set of offensive weapons at the most important positions.
Over a 2-3 start, the Bengals have scored 20 or fewer points three times and the blame appears to rest everywhere, whether it’s Zac Taylor’s play-calling, the offensive line or Joe Burrow himself.
But speaking on the issues this week, Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan cited losing yardage early in drives as a major reason for the slow starts — and highlighted the trouble opposing teams have given them.
“There are things we could do better early in the game, for sure, on the coaching side, put guys in a better position earlier than we have,” Callahan said, according to CLNS Media’s Mike Petraglia. “We do fight the problem of getting different looks than we’ve gotten from the other team than what’s on tape, which is frustrating particularly on third down. So that can be a challenge, but that’s what it is. That’s every week in the NFL and we’re not the only team that’s facing those types of issues.”
Alone, this wouldn’t be such an eyebrow-raising quote. Teams will throw out new looks that the Bengals have to counter, especially early in a season — go figure.
But the team’s severe lack of an answer for all the predictable Cover 2 looks defenses have thrown at them qualified as concerning even without coaches speaking on the fact defenses have thrown out new looks. From an outsider’s perspective, it almost seems like things went awry for the offense as early as training camp installs and now adjustments are taking longer than they can afford.
To the Bengals’ credit, the season is far from lost at 2-3 and the offensive adjustments have already shown progress on the field. But blame falls across the board for the stumble out of the gates, with the inability to anticipate and/or counter new looks from defenses via coaching and execution the primary problem.
